Unable to play the USA...

[hgilmer]

My current game goes in the trashbin because my war with Cherokee nation never ends. I have a war score of -3. Does that mean I'm losing?

I must play some other nation or another game.

[mike0me]

I'm playing USA as it was a backward country in 1850 and seems like a good place to learn. A good thing, as there is a long learning curve (or I'm a little slow). Lateley the game has been crashing, and I'm hoping the problem will be patched over.

I'm not sure where to send bug reports so here are some problems I've noted:
- Gold mines close for lack of money when there is plenty. Also, wasn't the gold used as money? Textile mills once closed for the same reason, although there was plenty of money and demand for more textiles.
- I started building cotton and tobacco farms since there was a huge demand. As the game progressed, there suddenly are no more construction tiles for either - even though building cotton production is a national goal.
- I tried spending on research, saving for it. It greedily took money, but produced no research. The next turn it wanted more, but I was tapped after spending a whopping 250!
- The supply overlay shows green in winter, but I still take huge losses from attrition for lack of supply.
- Any general who refused to attack maurading indians would be sacked asap. This is merely annoying. Maybe there should be a way to hire/fire generals.
- Suggestion: Add a 'Replacements Needed' action line for the turn which, when clicked, goes to the War Ministry. This would help new players.

[von Sachsen]

I'm playing USA as it was a backward country in 1850 and seems like a good place to learn. A good thing, as there is a long learning curve (or I'm a little slow). Lateley the game has been crashing, and I'm hoping the problem will be patched over.

I'm not sure where to send bug reports so here are some problems I've noted:
- Gold mines close for lack of money when there is plenty. Also, wasn't the gold used as money? Textile mills once closed for the same reason, although there was plenty of money and demand for more textiles.
- I started building cotton and tobacco farms since there was a huge demand. As the game progressed, there suddenly are no more construction tiles for either - even though building cotton production is a national goal.
- I tried spending on research, saving for it. It greedily took money, but produced no research. The next turn it wanted more, but I was tapped after spending a whopping 250!
- The supply overlay shows green in winter, but I still take huge losses from attrition for lack of supply.
- Any general who refused to attack maurading indians would be sacked asap. This is merely annoying. Maybe there should be a way to hire/fire generals.
- Suggestion: Add a 'Replacements Needed' action line for the turn which, when clicked, goes to the War Ministry. This would help new players.

-Was it lack of money, or it just closed down? In the beta patch, the alert tells you what good it closed down for, most likely it was mechanical gear? for the gold mine and dyes for the textiles. Remember, upkeeps are paid before your income, so even if you are importing 300 dyes in the next turn, if you don't have enough in your stockpile at that moment your factories will close down.

-There is a limited number of buildings that each nation can support, limited by technology. Iirc, the US can build four or so new cotton plantations at the beginning.

-It doesn't research it all in one go, the 250 you put in should have made the % go up 5+ whatever it would have done normally. In the newest patch it is spread out with 50/1% a turn.

[TheDoctorKing]

I've played the Amis a lot so here are some responses based on my experience:

You should not formally declare war on Indian tribes. They will attack you, and your units can fight back. Your goal is to flood their territory with your units, which are totally superior if it ever comes to a fight, and then gain military control. Once you have MC, you begin playing colonial missions until you increase your colonial penetration enough to declare the place a formal colony (starting with the state in which their capital is located - I think Oklahoma for the Cherokee, the Dakotas for the Dakota - duh - Oregon for the Nez Perce and New Mexico for the Apache). Once you do, presto!, the Indians become your friends. You do this to one Indian nation at a time, using your new allies against the next bunch. For the western Indians who don't start out hostile, you can actually carry out the conquest without much fighting - there will be occasional rebellions that you will have to crush but not too many. Same principle applies - gain military control, build colonial stuff, get the CP high enough to declare formal colonies. Don't forget to build a military outpost everywhere you can.

I seem to remember that a new patch eliminated the mech parts requirement for gold mines? If so, they are now profitable, but not enormously so, especially if they are in a region with low population. Don't sweat the gold production too much, though if you have some, sell it to your domestic market as I think it gives them big satisfaction.

Also note, on facilities closing, the inputs for facilities are taken out of your end-of-turn stockpile before new production is added. So if you have, say 20 iron left at the end of the turn, and your steel mills use up 30 iron, some of your steel mills are going to close even though your iron mines may produce 30 or more iron in a turn. No just-in-time production here! Lack of capital does not close facilities; instead, your capitalists borrow the money (from somewhere, not specified) and this pushes up the inflation rate.

I have never tried spending on research. 250 sounds like a bundle of money. Later on in the game it might make sense but certainly not for the USA at the beginning.

You can fire generals any time you like. Just drag him out of the stack and put him separately in the space. The units won't move as fast or fight as effectively, but they can be put on attack at any time. I often don't have generals in command of my Indian-fighting stacks.

Those garrison units that are locked in your military outposts and suchlike can also be placed on attack mode. For the attack to actually happen, you have to find the Indians and they have big evasion ratings. Normally, just being in the region runs up your military control percentage which is really the point of the whole exercise. Killing Indian units is gratifying but not necessary. And if you get the Indians to be your buddies all the survivors will be your units.

On replacements; you have to push f3 every turn and go see how many replacements you need. The points get used up randomly but my experience is that about one replacement per ten losses in each category is about right.

The cotton and tobacco thing is a little funny. ONe thing that is happening is that the Brits are producing a pile of wool which is also an input for textile mills. Mostly, I don't worry about expanding cotton production beyond what my own textile mills need. Minerals is a much more useful production since there is always an enormous global demand and the USA has a number of unexploited sites. Make sure to build a railroad to each minerals site though. Iron is sometimes also worth developing depending on what is happening with global steel production. And the USA has a bundle of iron. Keep an eye on the prices. When minerals gets up to 8 or 9 it can be like a license to print money.

And don't forget to produce as much manufactured goods as you can afford. Furniture factories, canned food factories, and man goods factories (the most expensive option) are good targets if you can get the capital together.

Good luck.

[TheDoctorKing]

Oh, yes, von Saschen is correct, you are limited by counter-mix in the number of facilities you can build. You will get more added to your counter-mix with certain technologies. I think that the USA is limited at start to only a couple of new cotton facilities.

In general, watch the prices. If cotton is selling for 2 pounds, don't bother. If it is up to 7 or 8, then build those babies. You can always close them later if the market collapses. People don't riot in this game if they are unemployed, they just go back to being less efficient producers.